Pokémon Scarlet and Pokémon Violet

[aerodynamik]

What don't you like about its design? It's adorable and reminds me of a fun mix of Litwick with Stoutland. I love that it hides in the ground as a little candle.

I've always found shaggy dogs to be ugly as hell, so that alone makes me hate the design from the start. The candle on its head just looks stupid as well. It feels like something that belongs in something more childish, like Yokai Watch.

But, I also haven't really enjoyed Pokemon designs since Gen 4 (and even then it was only a few here and there), so at this point I expect to go into new Pokemon games hating every single new Pokemon. I just have to hope there's enough older gen Pokemon for me to fill up my team so that I don't have to use any of the new ones. 

Honestly I think the only dog Pokemon I can say I remotely like is Houndoom. Would be nice if it was available in S/V.

Couldn't agree more with your post.

Honestly I think the only dog Pokemon I can say I remotely like is Houndoom. Would be nice if it was available in S/V.

There's a list of confirmed returning Pokémon on Serebii which confirms Houndoom is going to be in the games. The list doesn't seem to indicate if anything is version exclusive though, so I'm guessing that info might not be available yet and if so, then obviously be cautious that the version you get might not have it if you intend to get it yourself instead of trading for it.

@queenzelda: Polterpup would be a really fitting name for it I think.

Love the list so far. I see some all time favorites on it like: Coalossal, Goodra, Hydreigon, Lucario, Salamence, Altaria, Gardevoir, Tyranitar, Dragonite, Arcanine. Apart for a few new ones, I'm not a fan of the new generation designs. But nonetheless, I'll buy the game.

[Moonface]

I know it comes up every time a new gen gets revealed but I'm curious to hear from those who do have issues with the newer designs; what tends to be the main difference between the newer designs compared to the older ones? Like I've seen comments around the internet on the matter but it's always stuff like "the new Pokémon have lazy ideas it's just literally an x" but every gen has Pokémon that are just literally x and even then that doesn't apply to every Pokémon anyway so it can't cover the designs which don't fall under that.

I'm just curious what the key difference seems to be between the two periods for people here.

[Moonface]

There's going to be a new trailer tomorrow morning at 6am PT:

Additionally, a new Pokémon was revealed yesterday called Gimmighoul, a Ghost-type that comes in a Chest form and a Roaming form:

[ShiraNoMai]

God I can't believe they're putting out yet another trailer. I'm so glad I haven't seen too much cuz wow that is sure a lot of coverage of a game approaching release.

Been hearing more leaks have dropped, some significant parts of the game as well. I think I heard Fuecoco's second stage evo was revealed there.

Trying to keep away from all spoilers so if any of y'all have any, please remember to tag them as such

[Mr EliteL]

Ah, that's 2PM my time for the trailer. Might watch it live, not sure though. I'll try and remember.

Gimmighoul, just happy it wasn't the chest itself is the Pokémon and that there is a tiny thing inside it which is, judging from the design of the chest which looked well, standard and nothing defining. OK, you could say it's easily noticeable to be the chest from Pokémon but that's all. Would pick the dog ghost over it easily though.

[Moonface]

Join Forces to Battle the Mightiest Pokémon!
As announced yesterday, a new trailer for Pokémon Scarlet and Pokémon Violet is here; however, if you're interested solely in what new things were announced, I would suggest skipping the trailer entirely because it's really just a sizzle reel of the games as a whole with clips of some new stuff briefly placed throughout it.

• If you have play records from any of the previously released Nintendo Switch Pokémon games, you will be able to receive a Rotom Phone case in-game with a design inspired by the game the play records are from. Swap out your Rotom Phone case to one that suits your style as you set out to explore the Paldea region!
  
• Pokemon Home compatibility will be added to the games in Spring 2023.
  
• Tera Raid Battles will give players a chance to take on specific Pokémon or encounter Pokémon with certain Tera Types more frequently. The first Tera Raid Battle event—the Eevee Spotlight—will take place from Thursday, November 24, to Sunday, November 27, 2022.
  
• There will also be a Black Crystal Tera Raid Battle featuring Charizard with the Mightiest Mark. These raids will be available during two time periods: first on December 1–4, then again on December 15–18. Charizard can not be caught in-game by any other means, so this will be the only way to obtain it outside of trading. This particular Charizard will also have Dragon-type as its Tera Type.
  
• *New Pokémon!* Iron Treads (no I don't know why it has this name) - Screenshot
  
• *New Pokémon!* Great Tusk (same for this one) - Screenshot
  

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So yeah, if you do watch the trailer you'll see it really doesn't tell you anything that was actually announced so I don't get why it was hyped up by Nintendo when the meat on the bones has to be found outside the trailer. Also no idea what on earth is up with the names of the two new Pokémon because to me they sound like move names. I thought it might be a translation error but apparently these are the official English names, and I think they're stupid.

Also gg on paying money for an Ed Sheeran song for these games but not bothering to have voice acting which is a much more worthwhile thing to put money into than a song.

[ShiraNoMai]

I... yeah, I'm just gonna play the game when it launches. Don't even care to entertain the official stuff now.

I'm worried the leaks will make it to my Twitter timeline but I may mute that stuff.

[Mr EliteL]

I went and missed live somehow even though I remembered it 10 mins beforehand, got some lunch and immediately forgot about it. Disappointed with the Ed Sheeran song so I muted the video but wasn't much there anyway.

Still not sure if I really want the new Pokémon game, if I do it will be Scarlet but at the moment leaning to a no, purely because of the other games I have to play and more interested in Octopath 2.

[aerodynamik]

oh shit 2 days till countdown

[Moonface]

I... yeah, I'm just gonna play the game when it launches. Don't even care to entertain the official stuff now.

I'm worried the leaks will make it to my Twitter timeline but I may mute that stuff.

I definitely don't care to entertain anymore announcements about trailers and reveals for this game or any future Pokémon title unless it's a Direct. This games marketing had way too many instances of hyping up trailers that are a complete waste of time to watch.

As for the leaks, I looked at a lot yesterday and although it wasn't confirmed as being official or not, if the leak of Fuecoco's final evolution is real I'd rank that one as the best, followed by Sprigatitio and then Quaxly.

[Dragon Lord]

Well, looks like Bagon is going to be exclusive to Violet and Larvitar will be exclusive to Scarlet. So looks like I'll be going with Scarlet. I hate giving up Salamence, but having both Hydreigon and Dragonite available to obtain makes going with the version that gives me Tyranitar a pretty easy decision.

Might give that new Dragon/Ghost Pokemon a try though even though its design is, like the rest of the new Pokemon, pretty awful. In the end though, when in doubt, Hydreigon it out.

[aerodynamik]

This might be an interesting read: https://pokemondb.net/pokedex/game/scarlet-violet

[Moonface]

So currently this is the lowest scoring mainline Pokémon game since Pokémon Emerald, with a 78 on Metacritic. Not that 78 is bad, but why I mention the low score is because it seems the sole reason for it being so low is performance and graphical issues, which have been cited in the majority of reviews for the game. If you're wondering how rough these issues actually are, here's some excerpts:

Three Polygon writers received early access to the games, and each of us experienced a range of performance issues across 20-40 hours — largely visual issues like clipping through the world, and invisible Pokémon in battles. But there are also issues that stunted performance, like rough, almost stop motion-like frame rates and infrequent crashing at key moments.

The gameplay may be enough to distract you from the graphics, but what it can't hide are the framerate drops. You'll be exploring a new Province when, suddenly, your avatar will visibly slow down or you'll spot the stilted turn of a windmill, which leaves you wondering if Windy Miller coated its gears in tar. The framerate drops are most evident in the towns where, unless you're standing next to them, NPCs walk like they're in a bad stop-motion film. Sometimes this can result in them being trapped inside their Pokémon companion or another person, creating a body horror moment usually reserved for the darkest of Pokédex entries.

Probably the maddest instance you can see is the classroom at school, where kids sitting one or two desks back are swinging their legs back and forth or resting their head on their hand, swaying this way and that looking like a damn slide show. These characters are practically in the foreground. This stuff is present out in the open world, and it really makes an otherwise pretty good looking and polished game feel cheaper than it is.

It’s not hyperbole to say that Scarlet/Violet is one of the worst-looking—and running—games I’ve ever played. Pokéballs get stuck in rocks. The frame-rate in the open world constantly judders to a crawl. City buildings shimmer like a bad Photoshop cut-job, and the ground regularly disappears under your Pokémon, mid-battle.

Crashes forced me to restart, lag and slowdown was frequent, pop-in was a constant bugbear, the loading times were testing, textures looked unimpressive up close, sprites don’t appear until you’re practically standing on them, and the game cuts frames of animation on anything too that’s too tough for the hardware – like a single, slowly-turning windmill or several people sitting calmly in a classroom.

It sucks, because outside of that the game is being hailed as incredibly good, and I'd be interested to know how well it would have scored overall if it wasn't being held back by performance issues that I suspect are mostly the result of the limitations of the Switch itself. I expected the game wouldn't run perfectly, but it seems to be pretty bad on that front by the looks of it.

[ShiraNoMai]

I'll be wanting Violet, but yeah, I really wish The Pokemon Company would really give GameFreak more than cookie crumbs and spare change to make a quality game in the time frame they give them. It's embarrassing for a billion-dollar franchise to churn out a game that operates on such an unfinished/unpolished level, and I'd also be ashamed being a hard worker for GameFreak knowing that all the hard work I've done will just be shat on because I didn't get sufficient equipment (money, time, etc) to make the product I wanted.

[Dragon Lord]

I've seen some screenshots of the game and I'm pretty sure I've seen N64 games that look better than Scarlet/Violet. KEKW

"Guys, this game is only going to make us like $20,000,000,000, so all we can afford is a $5 budget."

Also in no way can the Switch be blamed for the performance of these games. There are much bigger games that run and look much better on the Switch, so they have no excuse. This is just a case of Gamefreak being absolute shit at optimization and/or just lazy/knowing people are going to buy the game no matter how bad they make it. They know the money is going to come rolling in, so why bother spending the time or money to make the game properly?